Hannah-Renée Becker singing Whitman's poem "Who Goes There?" set to music by Charles Ives.
Cape Ann Chamber Music is collaborating with the Gloucester Writers Center to celebrate the life and works of Walt Whitman in a unique concert program featuring readings and musical settings of his poetry to celebrate his bicentennial. The concert will take place on Sunday, November 17, at 2:00 pm at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Gloucester.
Walt Whitman, nicknamed the “Bard of Democracy,” is considered one of America’s most influential poets. His works celebrate and find beauty and assurance in nature, love, and friendship, and they honor what it is to be human in both body and soul. His writings on democracy are just as poignant for our time as they were two centuries ago. Whitman texts, while being some of the most-often-quoted, are also the inspiration for works by many composers.
Daniel Graham, a familiar Gloucester voice, will recite some of Whitman’s best-loved works, and Hannah-Renee Becker, mezzo-soprano, and Thomas Dawkins, baritone, will join Cape Ann Chamber Players (Gabryel Smith, violin, Susan Slowick, viola, and Kathleen Forgac, piano) to perform a variety of musical settings of his poetry. Bernstein, Bloch, Hindemith, Ives and Rorem are among the composers represented.
Cape Ann Chamber Music is widely acclaimed for its vibrant concerts which are, in keeping with the organization’s mission statement, “committed to bringing the finest musical performances to its community.” The Gloucester Writers Center, “a place for working writers in a working town,” is devoted to the exploration, development and celebration of diverse voices through dialogue and the artistic process.
Please join us for this exciting collaboration of two of Cape Ann’s finest cultural communities. An acoustically and aesthetically ideal setting for the intimacy of chamber music, St. Paul Lutheran Church is located at 1123 Washington Street and is handicapped accessible.
Tickets are $25 ($20 for students and seniors). For information or to reserve tickets, call (978) 239-7391 or contact cachambermusic@live.com.
